The damp air blew through the room,
ruffling the brown curtains as I peeled my eyes open. Unfamiliarity overcame me
upon waking. This feeling had been a morning ritual for the past week since I
had arrived in London.
My journal was opened beside me to what was written in my last waking seconds
of the previous night. Wimbledon Stadium stood out very vividly from the white
lined paper. I jumped out of bed with a spring in my step. Today I would find
my way to where the top tennis players match up. Memories of last year’s
Wimbledon shown on television in the U.S. flowed like the water from the
shower head while I hurried myself for departure. Today I would wear my
favorite yellow shirt with “Vidalia Onions” painted across the front. My foot
wiggled into my second shoe in sync with the key locking the door. I skipped
every other step on the way to the subway, or “tube” as it is called in London. The train doors
couldn’t open fast enough for everyone to step onto the train. My patience
diminished with each stop until at last we had reached our destination. My feet
got back up to speed again, skipping every other step, continuing up the stairs
and towards the bus. The air was warm now. The waiting bus was even hotter and
packed with people talking about tennis. Suddenly the ground moved steadily
below us for several minutes until someone said, “There it is!” We had arrived
at Wimbledon Stadium. People cheering pierced the silence sporadically,
deadening the sound of footsteps progressing from the back of the bus towards
the green- painted stadium. Droves of people lined the streets for about a
mile. An old man held one hand out for my ticket and used the other to point me
to the correct match. The cheering became louder and louder with each step
towards the stadium seating. The light brightened with my movement upwards. The
smell of grass flowed down the stairs with the breeze. When I reached the top,
my eyes expanded, followed by my mouth. There was the crowd, the grass court, and
the pros.At last I had become part of
what I had watched only on television thousands of miles away.